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U.S. seeks to reduce waivers for immigration fees

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is proposing changing
the eligibility for fee waivers for lower-income immigrants on the path
to legal permanent residency and U.S. citizenship.
Immigration advocates say the move is like building an "invisible wall."

USCIS announced the change Friday in the Federal Register. Receiving
means-tested public benefits from the states would no longer result in
automatic USCIS fee waivers, the proposal states. Instead, fee waivers
would only be tied to two criteria: the federal poverty threshold or
particular financial hardships.

The change is necessary, USCIS said, because "eligibility for these
benefits can vary from state to state, depending on the state's income
level guidelines," meaning that "individuals who would not otherwise
qualify under the poverty-guideline threshold and financial hardship
criteria have been granted fee waivers."
In 2017, USCIS approved 285,009 fee waiver applications, totaling $173 million.

The new proposal restricts waivers only to applicants who are at or
below 150 percent of the federal poverty threshold or financial
hardship.

"It's a significant narrowing of those who would be eligible for the fee
waiver. Our estimates indicate that this would reduce the total
population of those eligible for a fee waiver by two-thirds," said Jill
Marie Bussey, advocacy director for the Catholic Legal Immigration
Network. "It's an extremely troubling proposal for our network."

In California, where 20 percent of the population is foreign born, the
federal poverty threshold to claim state benefits is 200 percent.

For 2018, a four-person family in California is eligible for
means-tested state benefits with a household income at or below $50,200.
Thus, an immigrant household at that income level and receiving state
means-tested benefits are currently eligible for a USCIS fee waiver.

But with the proposed change, that same four-person Californian
household would only be eligible for the USCIS fee waiver if household
income was at or below $37,650.

USCIS is like the U.S. Postal Service in that most of its funding comes
from fees paid for its services, rather than from U.S. taxpayers.

USCIS fees for immigrants to use its services can run into the
thousands. The application for a "green card", formally known as the
"application to register permanent residence," costs $1,140. The
application for naturalization to become a U.S. citizen costs $640.

The waiver proposal is an attempt to reverse a change to immigration
policy under President Barack Obama. In 2011, USCIS standardized a
process of using means-tested benefits as a way to prove eligibility for
its fee waivers.

"When this agency waives fees, it's hurtful to the quality of the agency
and it pushes fees off from one population to another. If you can't get
fees from group A, then you have to run up the fees for groups B, C,
and D. So there is a reason to be careful with waivers," said David
North, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington,
D.C., think tank advocating for low immigration.

"The change works against and secures some fee money from the near poor
while leaving the poor untouched. So this is not a program that rolls
back benefits for the really poor people, it rolls back benefits for
some of the working poor and the income level above that," North said.

CLINIC's Bussey said the proposal is like an "invisible wall," "a
back-door way of limiting family immigration and reunification." She
fears it will suppress naturalization rates

"And that hurts us all. Studies really show that low-income immigrants
are able to improve their financial status through naturalization. They
have access to better jobs, educational opportunities and resources,"
she said. "So limiting access to naturalization through limiting this
fee waiver creates a poverty loop."

North said the fees make sense because U.S. legal status brings
"admission to the labor market, for instance, where you can make as much
money as you want or can."

The proposed change is open for comment until Nov. 27. Public comments
have to be taken into consideration when finalizing a federal government
rule change but may not necessarily be incorporated into its outcome.https://www.geezgo.com/sps/41652